“TID financing is to provide an incentive to private enterprise so that they will do something that will otherwise not be done. If not for TID financing the project would not move forward. Without the lower cost loans that TIF can offer, these projects would cost too much and the developer would not make money.”

Jeff Hanewall, Trustee, Shorewood Village Board.

Some people have expressed their views about the currently developing project on Oakland involving the movement of Walgreen's. And what Hanewall describes pretty well fits their view of “corporate welfare."

Although the “blighted”aspects of these projects have lost their earlier significance and improvement of tax base has become more important than removing blight, I believe that this approach has become well-rooted in the process of redevelopment, especially with communities like Shorewood.

It is my strong feeling that the land should remain in the Village's ownership and that we should maintain a more significant “financial stake” in the building itself. If we don't do this, it would certainly appear that we are “engaged in corporate welfare.”

I think the responsibility of good maintenance of the building should be strongly enforced and that ownership of the building itself should revert to the Village after 30 years. Then, we would have a good “financial stake' in the project.

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